This invention relates to a digital video effects apparatus and method of operation therefor.
A commonly used present day video effect is to provide a video display unit (VDU) upon which is displayed a background and to provide a flying window which is rotated and the size of which may vary so that the window may, for example, fly in from a top left hand corner and grow in size. Normally the flying window carries foreground data which is superimposed on a background video and which foreground gradually displaces the background video. Such an effect is shown in FIG. 1 in which background video data B is produced on a VDU 1, the foreground video data F is produced on a VDU 2 and a composite of the background and foreground video data is produced on a VDU 3. The background B initially substantially fills the composite VDU 3 and the foreground F video data enters the VDU 3 from a corner, for example, may subsequently rotate to produce a 3D effect with respect to the foreground video and may gradually increase in size to displace the background video data.
Such an arrangement does not enable a user to see what is happening to the foreground video off screen of the VDU 3. Furthermore, the foreground video 2 may be an extremely small window being extremely difficult to determine the orientation of the window.
The present invention seeks to overcome the foregoing difficulties.